Thank you NetGalley for the free ARC.
Somebody else said LesMis meets Lunar Chronicles and I agree and that is a good thing, plus throw in some star wars. I liked the three main characters Marcellou, Alouette and Theo/Chatine. Laterre is run by a corrupt regime and the rebels are trying to overthrow them.

*Thank you so much Simon and Schuster Children’s Publishing for providing this arc via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Sky Without Stars is a reimagining of Victor Hugo’s famous novel Les Misérables. Authors Jessica Brody and Joanne Rendell creatively construct this novel to reimagine Hugo’s story in a different format. Sky Without Stars is set in a seemingly futuristic fantastical world. The story revolves around the setting of the planet Laterre. Laterre depicts promised hope and future being ripped away due to a harsh upper class. This novel explores how the fate of the individual is decided at birth depending on one’s family and upbringing. The authors create a three tier social system that is the royalty, the authority, and the poor. The people living in poverty in the Marsh must do all the work for little pay and none of the benefits once promised to them. This work revolves around three diverse individuals who are a part of different social classes and purposes.

Sky Without Stars is a well-done reimagining of Les Misérables. I enjoyed the setting of this novel and how it is still able to relate to the core messages within the original story. However, I do believe that this story has the ability to stand on its own and should not be critically compared to the original. I appreciated the French inclusions within the text, but some words were a bit overdone at times with this incorporation. I think it was a bit overused and distracting at times, but ultimately I did not mind it.

Chatine was my favorite character in this novel. I did appreciate the perspectives of Marcellus and Alouette, but sometimes I was pretty annoyed with these characters. I think Alouette could have had a little more character development as well. I kind of felt like Alouette and Marcellus were a little flat at times. I also did not care for the little recaps as the perspective changed, this was not done for each shift but sometimes it was a bit overused and annoying.

Ultimately I would say I enjoyed the story and the characters. I will say that the last 150ish pages were a bit disappointing to me and I began to gradually lose some interest in the story at times. I loved the start and middle of this novel, but I think some parts should have perhaps been cut or minimized. I do think that this story is worth reading though and I believe that many readers will enjoy this world. I can see myself putting this book into my classroom because it is recommended for readers ages 12 and up, and I can support that this is accurate.

I loved this book! The full review will be posted March 21, 2019 at kaitgoodwin.com/books! Thank you very much for this wonderful opportunity to connect books to their readers!

Enjoyable read with fantastic world building. The characters instantly draw you in and the pace of the book is exciting.